This is getting to be a bad habit…!

So again guys, apologies for the lack of posts in the last few weeks, again it has been an extremely busy time with a lack of week nights/weekends to actually do any posting. However I have managed to crack on with some more painting, new developments and even squeeze in a game or two which has been great!

So what’s on my list this week?

New releases!

What’s on the painting table?

What’s on the bookshelf?

Battle Report: Ad-mech + Death Guard vs Blood Angels + Death Guard

Exciting New Releases!

So I am sure you all know what I am about to talk about as everyone has been giving their 2 cents on the matter, but I can’t wait for the release of Necromunda!

I am sure I am not the only one who is super excited about the new release of the classic Games Workshop game Necromunda. The premise is that you control rival gangs of the Necromunda Hive City as you vie for control of the underhive. The underhive is where all he scum and villany of Necromunda live, those poor enough to not be able to afford to be able to live “above”. If any of you have played Final Fantasy 7 and can remember the city of Midgar, I kind of imagine that the underhive is the slums section sitting beneath the plate where all the more well off people live.

The original game of Necromunda was released many years ago and fell out of print when I started properly playing the hobby. However when I was younger I remember reading so much about it in White Dwarf magazines and thinking it would be amazing to play, so I can’t wait for my starter box and gang war supplement to arrive next weekend! I know there are many at my local gaming club who have also bought the game and are raring to play it so hopefully I will get some games in soon!

What I think is quite clever about Necromunda is that Games Workshop have released the boxed game and included everything you need to play in the box. However the boxed game is a flat playing surface, on cardboard tiles, much like Warhammer Quest, Space Hulk etc. Now the original Necromunda was all about having as much tightly packed multi-level terrain as possible and this was hard to come by at the time and I imagine it still is. A lot of my 40k terrain doesn’t really translate well into Necromunda games, however GW have also released the Gang War supplement which provides the rules to play multi-level games, and they have also released all this beautiful multi-level scenery based around refinerys and the like, so now it is much easier to get a hold of for those of us (me included) not so good at building their own terrain. I won’t go on much more about Necromunda for now until the game arrives as I am sure you have heard loads elsewhere about it but I had to talk about it just a little bit!

Other new releases…

So some other new releases since I last posted have been pretty much all the codexes for my armies have been released. So I now have the codex and associated datacards for my Space Marines, Adeptus Mechanicus and Tyranids. Just waiting for the Genestealer Cult now! All the codexes are nicely presented and I have managed to get 1 or 2 games in with both Space Marines and Ad-mech. I have not had a chance to play a game with my Tyranids yet but I am looking forward to playing with them.

What’s on the painting table?

I haven’t had as much time as I would like to get some painting done in the last month or so. However I have managed to get a few models done and even tried out a few new things on my most recent projects.

So I painted a squad of Primaris Intercessors that I am quite pleased with, what I tried for the first time was putting transfers on the shoulder pads. I am really pleased with how they came out. The only thing I struggled a bit with was making them sit flat with the curve of the shoulder pad so if anyone has any tips for that I would really appreciate it!

Primaris Intercessors

Primaris Intercessors

I also managed to complete the Primaris Captain in Gravis armour as well. I’m not sure how I feel about him. At the moment he feels a bit dull, I am debating whether to paint some of the segments of his armour white just to make him stand out a bit more, that or change the colour of his helmet again just to make him a bit different. Let me know what you think!

Primaris Captain in Gravis Armour

I also managed to paint the reaper chainsword on my Imperial Knight. He has been sitting half finished for a while now, which is has been frustrating as the large parts of him have been done! I am also part of the way through completing the Stormspear rocket pod on top as well so then I just need to complete the Gatling Cannon and he is complete…until I get around to completing the other weapon options in the future!

Imperial Knight Reaper Chainsword

What’s on the bookshelf?

So in my last post I had just started reading Legacies of Betrayal from the Horus Heresy series. It is an anthology of short stories all based around the Horus Heresy, mostly focussing (but not exclusively) on the Chaos perspective compared to the Loyalists. I do enjoy the anthologies mainly because I can read one of the short stories in one sitting without taking too long before bed, however obviously for a lot of the stories you do not get enough time to really get attached to any of the main characters. However if you are a collector like me it is worth picking up and adding to your collection!

The other books I have been reading/finished in the past month so far have been reading through the Adeptus Mechanicus codex, all the fluff side of the codex which I always enjoy, and again I am currently making my way through the Space Marine codex which I have got most of the way through. It’s always interesting to read the differences between old and new codex fluff, although with 8th edition there has been quite a big story jump compared to previous editions so it is definitely worth reading. I’m sure by my next post I will be well into either the Tyranid codex or the Necromunda books that will come in the box.

Excitingly I also have the Kal Jericho comic collection coming at some point, it is made to order at Games Workshop so it will be a while before it arrives I imagine. I don’t know about any of you, but when I started collecting Warhammer, the Warhammer Monthly was a brilliant magazine and I picked up a few in my time. I loved the Kal Jericho series so I am looking forward to it arriving hopefully before Christmas.

Battle Report: Death Guard & Ad-Mech vs Death Guard & Blood Angels

Mission Type:

Ad-Mech List – 1000pts

Mars

Tech Priest Dominus – Red Axe of Mars

5 x Vanguard w/2 Plasma Calivers + Omnispex

5 x Vanguard w/2 Plasma Calivers + Omnispex

3 x Syndonian Balistarii w/ Lascannons

2 x Kastellans w/ all Phosphor

1 x Datasmith

1 x Onager Dunecrawler w/ Neutron Laser + extra Heavy Stubber

Death Guard – 1000pts

Lord of Contagion w/scythe + extra resilience

3 x Deathshroud Terminators

Malignant Plaguecaster

Noxious Blightbringer

10 x Poxwalkers

10 x Poxwalkers

7 x Plague Marines w/ Plasma gun + Power fist

Foetid Blight Drone Drone w/ Flamer

VS

Blood Angels – 1000pts

Dante

Astra Militarum Psyker

5 x Tactical Marines w/ Lascannon

5 x Tactical Marines w/ Missile Launcher

5 x Scouts w/ Sniper Rifles + Camo cloaks

Razorback w/ Lascannons

Razorback w/ Assault Cannons

5 x Devastators w/ Lascannons + Missile Launchers

5 x Devastators w/ Lascannons + Missile Launchers

Death Guard – 1000pts

Typhus

Daemon Prince

Tallyman

Noxious Blightbringer

20 x Poxwalkers

20 x Poxwalkers

14 x Plague Marines w/ close combat weapons

Deployment

Alex I deployed with my Balistarii on our left flank, his plague marines, 1 unit of poxwalkers and bell left centre, I then had my Kastellans, datasmith, 2 units of vanguard and tech priest dominus taking the central ruins holding one objective. Alex then deployed his other poxwalkers, plaguecaster and bloat drone on the right centre and I had my Dunewalker deployed on the far right flank holding a second objective. Alex put his Lord of contagion and Deathshroud Terminators in Deep Strike.

Out opponent Chris and Adam deployed all the Blood Angels in a bubble opposite our left flank, devastators occupying ruins and Dante giving his re-roll bubble to all their units whilst a unit of scouts deplyed at the top of some ruins in the centre of the board. Adam deployed his death guard in a fairly large bubble covering opposite our centre and right flank with poxwalkers out front and his characters making sure all his units were in range to get their buffs.

Turn 1

Alex and I got the first turn due to finishing deploying first and then using the Chapter approved rules we rolled off but we got +1 to our roll for finishing deploying first. I promptly rolled a 6 (and they failed to seize) so we began.

Alex began by moving most of his Death Guard units forwards towards our opponents, effectively blocking the easy avenues through the terrain with his poxwalkers. Most of my units stayed still, with the exception of my vanguard who crept forwards behind the Death Guard advance.

In the psychic phase Alex managed to buff his right flank squad of poxwalkers with extra toughness and -1 to hit.

Shooting then began. It was not as effective as I hoped, we were hampered by the negative modifiers to shooting due to the mission special rules, I managed to knock the lascannon Razorback down to 1 wound (in retrospect I should have used a command point to ensure its destruction but oh well!) and we took out 4 of the 5 scouts to nullify them in their character sniping abilities. We also took out a few poxwalkers and 2 devastators but that was about all for our turn 1. We did not score any objectives turn 1.

Adam and Chris then began their turn 1 by advancing all the Death Guard forwards, Adam had next to no shooting in his army so was not worried about advancing all his units in preparation for an assault in the following turn. Chris’s army remained relatively static, with one or two squads moving slightly to get better line of sight and range.

In the psychic phase Adam didn’t manage to get any powers off unfortunately due to poor rolling and a deny from our plaguecaster.

In the shooting phase Chris opened up on my Balistarii, managing to take down 1 and reduce another to 4 wounds. Again shooting was hampered by the mission rules. With no assaults we moved to turn 2. No objectives scored by them either.

Turn 2

Alex I began turn 2 with his Death Guard again advancing, although his Plague Marines slowed to sit behind his poxwalkers on the left flank. His poxwalkers and Bloat drone moved forward to the right to bottleneck Adam’s advance with his main force and slow them up. At the end of the movement phase Alex’s Lord of contagion and Deathshroud Terminators dropped in front of Chris’ Blood Angels ready to hopefully make a charge.

In the psychic phase Alex again buffed his poxwalkers ready for a charge.

In the shooting phase we targeted Adam’s poxwalkers on our right flank, killing 12 of them (not easy with the negative modifiers put on them!). We also killed the lone scout to get first blood and my Onager and Balistarii managed to take Chris’ other Razorback down to 4 wounds remaining.

In the assault phase Alex declared a charge with his poxwalkers, Deathshroud Terminators and Lord of contagion. Fortunately the Deathshroud got in to Chris’ devastators, his Lord of contagion did not make it, The poxwalkers did manage to charge their opposite number. In close combat the Deathshroud made short work of the devastators and piled in to the astra militarum psyker next to them. The poxwalkers killed a few of each other, bringing Adam’s down to 4 remaining and Alex’s to 9.

We managed to claim 2 points plus first blood for hold the line and claiming objective 2 with my Onager dunecrawler.

Adam and Chris began their turn by retreating everything in combat out of it. Adam moved his Plague marines ready to assault our poxwalkers on the right, along with his daemon prince. His other squad of poxwalkers moved to assault our other squad on the left flank. Chris prepared Dante to assault the Deathshroud.

In the psychic phase Adam buffed the Daemon prince and that was about it.

In the shooting phase Chris managed to take out 1 of the Deathshroud while Adam lobbed grenades into the poxwalkers and killed half of them. Adam and Chris then assaulted with Dante into the deathshroud and his plague marines and daemon prince into our poxwalkers and the other poxwalkers into our poxwalkers. Dante was surprisingly easily cut down for no damage in return and the deathshroud piled into the astra militarum psyker again. The poxwalkers on our left flank managed to cut down all our poxwalkers, consolidating into our plague marines, Kastellans and Blightbringer thanks to so many popping back up. Finally on the right flank the plague marines easily ended the remaining few poxwalkers and consolidated forwards.

Again no points for Adam and Chris.

Turn 3

Turn 3 began with us pulling our squads out of combat apart from the Deathshroud. Alex’s Lord of contagion advanced to tackle the Blood Angels and I moved my Vanguard to take down some of the Plague marines and poxwalkers threatening to overrun us.

In the psychic phase our plaguecaster used smite to kill 2 plague marines and then buffed himself to make him harder to hit.

In the shooting phase the Vanguard took aim at the poxwalkers and plague marines and reduced the plague marines to 5, and took a few poxwalkers out. The ballistarii took the Razorback with assault cannons down to 1 wound remaining. Finally the Onager put a few wounds on Adam’s Daemon prince.

In the assault phase the Lord of contagion charged the second devastator squad and my Tech Priest and the plague marines assaulted the poxwalkers. The plague marines and tech priest killed a handful of poxwalkers, and we lost 2 plague marines in return and a few wounds on the tech priest (who promptly healed himself back to full next turn). In the combats with the deathshroud and lord of contagion, the devastators and psyker were killed for 1 wound on the deathshroud in return.

We scored 1 point for securing objective 1 with the blight drone.

Adam and Chris began turn 3 moving their Daemon prince ready to assault the Onager, moving the remaining Blood Angels to target the Lord of contagion and remaining Deathshroud terminators and pushing forward with Typhus and the rest of the characters to push into a swirling melee in the centre.

In the psychic phase the Daemon prince got Vorpal claws off on himself and typhus managed to get -1 to hit on the remaining poxwalkers.

In the shooting phase Chris managed to finish off the remaining Deathshroud with combined firepower from 2 Razorbacks and the 2 tactical squads. The plague marines threw grenades at 1 squad of vanguard and killed 2.

In the assault phase the daemon prince charged in to the Dunecrawler, taking 2 wounds from overwatch before wrecking it. Typhus, the Tallyman and the Blightbringer assaulted the Kastellans and put 3 wounds on one for no damage in return. The poxwalkers killed a few more plague marines and lost a couple in return. The plague marines charged the remaining Vanguard and killed them.

Still no objective points gained for Adam and Chris.

Turn 4

The Bloat drone flew over to where the Dunecrawler had been last turn to get some shots on the daemon prince and secure objective 6 for another point. The datasmith repaired the Kastellan back to full for another point.

In the psychic phase the plaguecaster took another wound off the Daemon prince bringing it down to 2.

In the shooting phase the Bloat drone took 1 more wound off the Daemon prince (their warlord). The remaining Vanguard squad managed to finish off the last few plague marines lurking around. Finally the Balistarii took the Assault cannon Razorback down to 1 wound.

In the assault phase the Lord of contagion killed a few more tactical marines, the swirling melee in the middle killed a handful more poxwalkers, as well as losing a Kastellan to Typhus and friends.

For Adam and Chris they moved the Daemon prince to assault our plaguecaster, and moved the remaining Blood Angels to target the Lord of Contagion (our Warlord).

In the psychic phase the Daemon prince again got buffs to damage and Typhus buffed the remaining poxwalkers.

In the shooting phase the Lord of contagion lost 2 wounds to the combined firepower of the remaining Blood Angels.

In the assault phase the Daemon prince killed the plageucaster and Typhus and buddies put few wounds on the remaining Kastellans with a few more Poxwalkers biting the dust.

However still no points for Adam and Chris.

Conclusion

At this point it was getting very late and we decided to call the game, Alex and I had 6 points and were 1 wound away from getting Warlord kill as well, whereas Adam and Chris could get 4 points for killing the Lord of contagion, but this was looking increasingly unlikely.

Victory for Ad-mech & Death Guard!

Overall conclusions were that Death Guard are tough! To be honest the Blood Angels didn’t achieve very much, getting slowly killed off by the Deathshroud and Lord of contagion, and Adam’s death guard were the real threat to us. MVP were definitely the Deathshroud, taking out Dante without breaking a sweat was impressive!

Until next time…

Hopefully my next post will be up sooner but I can’t make any promises! Christmas is coming up after all! Happy hobbying!